☁︎ What I did (TDLR)

• fully finished building the Forum Section.
• fully finished building the Arcade Section.
• 85% finished building the Daycare Section.
• 20% finished building the Gamification Aspects.
• lots of planning and designing.

.-‘🚂-‘.ᯓᡣ𐭩

☁︎ the details

well, before i explain why i’ve been radio silent and give my heartfelt thanks and apology… let’s show you what you’re here to see! (˵ •̀ ᴗ – ˵ )

☁︎☁︎ the forum

forums are pretty easy to build! i’m not 100% set on the design for this area. well, the site is in early alpha and still isn’t even open to users, so you should expect almost everything to change over time… but i’m got the structure and infrastructure totally built and ready for use! i need to write some sticky posts and get those pinned, but every section i will show today still needs small content like that to be added in. what matters is that all the foundation and structure is set!

the list of categories and forums that are currently made is as follows. But remember, these can and likely will change! to see full descriptions of each forum and what it’s for, check out the screenshot of it under the list. ^_^

• Serious business
  • Rules
  • Announcements
  • Suggestion Box
  • Tech Support
• Community
  • Introduce Yourself!
  • Age Regression Discussions
  • Age Dreaming Discussions
  • System Regression Discussions
  • Pet Regression Discussions
  • Caregiver Discussions
• Caregivers’ Corner
  • Adoption center
  • Ask A Caregiver
  • Caregiving Tips & Advice
• Fun Stuff
  • Activities, Tips & Tricks
  • Arts, Crafts, & Writing
  • Fandoms & Media Discussions
  • Forum Games
  • The SUnshine Gazette
• Not So Fun Stuff
  • Am I The Meanie?
  • Self Care & Harm Reduction
  • venting

here’s what the forum looks like in its current 1.0 state! i’m MAKING THE IMAGES COLLAPSIBLE SINCE THIS POST WILL BE TEN MILES LONG IF I DON’T. (╥﹏╥)

☁︎☁︎ the Arcade

This section was also pretty easy to put together! i’d like to add so many more features down the line… i want to be able to do leaderboards, site contests, and even (some day far, far away) have something like a virtual world…? But for now, it’s a pretty simple website that just has some online games available.

please ignore whatever random weird games are currently there… (￣ ⠀￣|||) i added some completely at random without even reading the titles since it didn’t matter what they were as long as i could test them in the site… when the beta version of the site opens there will be a lot of cool games that i picked personally. :>

☁︎☁︎ the daycare

this section… is super hard to put together!! (」°ロ°)」did you know the vast majority of this past year was spent on this section alone…? well, it’s almost done, so soon i won’t have to cry over it anymore. i just want to finish up with some design work and get moderation set up, then i can finally call this section 1.0! but, aside from my nitpicky goals of perfection, much of the bones are already in place… you can post your own activities about whatever you want, browse and filter the ones other people made, add and remove them from a saved for later list, give gold stars to ones you liked… it’s all there except for a few more things i want to do.

it’ll be easier to just show you than to explain everything to do with this section… have a look, will you?

☁︎☁︎ gamification

the page for this is really just barely getting started, so i won’t include images of that half built thing. i will say, though, that i’ve got a solid idea of how gamification will be structured! there will be stickers and stamps, basically! stickers are like achievements that you get for doing all kinds of things. number of groups joined, number of posts, high scores in games, gold star counts on activities, and all sorts of other stuff; there will be a bunch of different stickers to get, some easier than others. you’ll be able to pick which stickers you want to show off next to your username, like the tumblr checkmarks.

as for stamps, they’re basically like points that you get for interacting with the site. your account age, number of stickers, and a few others go into your stamp count. then, based on how many stamps you have, you get a rank like “Passenger” for site newbies with only a few stamps and “stationmaster” for veterans who have been around for a long time! the ranks don’t do anything special, i just think they’re fun. :]

.-‘🚂-‘.ᯓᡣ𐭩

☁︎ Where the heck were you, mel!?

well… I was working hard (with a few breaks here and there). (╥﹏╥)

it’s a pretty silly story for why i was away for so long. it’s just that i wanted to give you all so much more than these words and images! (⇀‸↼‶) i want to give you a link to a demo site so you can see it for yourself! but right now, even with all this progress, there’s still a crazy amount that i need to do… stickers and stamps need to finish being set up, moderation tools for the daycare and writing a few activities to start it off, curating a good selection of games, sticky posts for the forums, there’s still a lot I want to change about user profiles/groups/generic social media features, and not to mention the entire gallery/library, events function, and shop haven’t even been touched yet. even though i still had so much work though, i still just wanted to finish everything and post a demo, so i kept saying “i’ll wait a little longer, i’m almost done, it will be better to wait until the demo is ready before i say anything, people will be way happier to see a demo than another progress report!”

…then a year passed while i was working on it.

i’m sorry everyone!!!

but also, thank you guys so much for continuing to believe in this project. it might have seemed like i ignored everyone because i wasn’t saying anything, but i read every single ask you guys submit to this site, and they encourage me to keep going. even on days when i was super frustrated with glitches or bugs or design flaws, i always wanted to keep trying because i just kept thinking of the kind things you’ve all said. every time i get an email saying that another person responded to my survey, I’m so happy it’s still being passed around. the entire reason i decided to give up on holding out for a demo and just post a normal report was because i got an ask that said, “miss you!’

I miss you too!! thank you for not forgetting about me! i’ll keep working on it until we can all meet on the finished site, so don’t give up on me yet! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

.-‘🚂-‘.ᯓᡣ𐭩

☁︎ looking forward

i’m not expecting to have a hard time finishing up the stickers and stamps section, it should be done within a couple weeks. then, i’ll either swing back around to finish up the daycare or move on to making changes to the generic social media functions like posting, reposting, liking, following, groups, and so on. those are mostly built anyway, they just need some basic improvements to be where i want them. i’ll definitely do a better job of keeping you guys updated! i’ve considered asking to see if anyone would be interested in helping me run social medias for the project, like this dev blog and my tumblr. would anyone want to help me out with writing and posting these updates and responding to asks? let me know if so!

.-‘🚂-‘.ᯓᡣ𐭩

☁︎ How I’m doing

it’s been a rollercoaster of a year, honestly, but i’m doing a-okay. this project is still one of my biggest goals for the future. working on it makes me smile. what else is there to say? ( ^ᴗ^ )